


Using the Internet (Do's and Don't's)

by DJClawson



Series: Theodore Nelson's Adventures in Sharing a Workspace [5]
Category: Daredevil (TV)
Genre: Coming Out, Discussion of STDs, F/M, Homosexuality, M/M, Multi, discussion of safe sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-16
Updated: 2018-12-16
Packaged: 2019-09-19 19:15:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17007570
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DJClawson/pseuds/DJClawson
Summary: You should really delete your browser history.





	Using the Internet (Do's and Don't's)

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks again to Pogopop for her beta work!
> 
> I only have very loose ideas for future stories (believe it or not, I don't think Theo and Matt are going to get married and settle down), so if there's anything you want me to try, let me know. Thank you for reading!

If there was one thing – well, two things – about Matt that Theo definitely knew by now, it was that he had no sense of boundaries and the weirdest fucking timing when it came to conversational flow.

He started the night with, “Is it okay if I come in through your window sometimes?” and honestly, what the hell was Theo supposed to do with that? Say no? Say yes? Drink until he forgot the question? 

“Karen seemed annoyed by it,” Matt said, and he couldn’t be  _ that _ oblivious, could he? 

“For a fancy-pants lawyer, you are the dumbest fucking person,” Theo replied. “If you also weren’t the hottest fucking person I don’t know where you would even be in life. Or if you would still be alive.”

“If it makes you feel better, I’ve basically died once already.”

At least Sadie liked him, possibly because he smelled of meat from the shop and maybe blood. And Theo certainly liked the things Matt  _ did _ to him, or let him do to Matt. But seriously – this fucking guy!

Matt also chose the moment that they were both totally fucking spent and still crammed in the shower with the slippery ancient bathtub beneath them to say, “I got tested.”

“Um, good?”

“I was pretty sure I was clean. It’s been a while, anyway – since before I started with the mask. But I wanted to be sure. It’s polite. And I hate condoms.”

Theo hated them to, but not as vigorously. “Is this a senses thing?”

“I assume. I got my senses when I was a kid, so I don’t know what it would be like otherwise. More bearable, I guess.”

Theo shut off the water because he had bills to pay. And it did not seem necessary to be wet right now. “I’ll go to the clinic. It should be fine, but – there was this thing I went to, like six months ago.”

“ _ Thing? _ ”

Man, how did a blind guy so accurately give him the eye? Theo stepped onto the bathmat and threw the spare towel that had once been Foggy’s and had his favorite Ninja Turtle on it in Matt’s face. “Fine, it may have been an orgy. But not like what you’re thinking.”

“You don’t know what I’m thinking,” Matt unhelpfully pointed out. “Is there some reason I don’t want to hear this story?”

“It wasn’t like it was hosted in the back room of the shop,” Theo said, which was an awful image to put in his own head. “It was just – bad.” He sighed, knowing that was not going to be a satisfying answer. “I didn’t know anyone, and it wasn’t a good group. Everyone was nice, I guess, but one guy was super-duper high on uppers and wanted to fuck everyone there like right away and we had to start off with this whole discussion about consent, which really killed the mood for a while. And they promised on the Whatsapp group that they would meet everyone’s dietary needs, but that was total bullshit, so at the end I was spending most of my time bitching about it with the guy who was glatt kosher. We had to ditch to get something to eat and we probably would have exchanged numbers if he hadn’t had a wife and eight kids. So yeah, bad orgy, and I should get tested. But it’s kind of embarrassing, even though theoretically no one knows why you’re there, and you’re an adult.”

“It’s more embarrassing when you need the nurse to read you the results,” Matt said. 

“Did you flirt with her beforehand?”

“I have done that. Not this time. Other times.” 

“How considerate of you. Now get out of my bathroom,” Theo said. “This hair doesn’t dry itself.”

  
  


Theo did get tested, and texted Matt,  _ Clean _ . He didn’t have time to really follow up on that, too nervous about his parents coming back from Florida. They had found the condo they wanted but they needed to wait for the closing to get the keys. It was obvious that his dad wanted to check on the shop to make sure it hadn’t imploded in their absence, and to see that Theo and Foggy were getting along in the same space. Theo made the meatballs they both loved.

“I’m going to tell them,” he said to Foggy. “Don’t bring up Matt.”

“Are you still a thing?”

“Do you want an answer?”

“Fuck it, no I don’t,” Foggy said, finishing his after-work beer. “Can I tell Marci?”

“You didn’t already?”

“No. Of course not.” Foggy looked offended that it was even a suggestion.

“It would be helpful if I didn’t have to personally tell everyone in Hell’s Kitchen, so yeah, knock yourself out.” He stopped watching the steak on the grill long enough to see the bottle Foggy brought. “Don’t bring that shit in here.”

“It’s good! You haven’t even looked at the label.”

“I know not to drink anything that comes in a blue bottle.”

“What about vodka? Oh, if it’s not burning the back of your throat or watery as shit it’s too good for you now?” Foggy said. “Fuck! Working here is rubbing off on me.”

“It might be good for you. Bring you back to your roots.”

“Trust me, going back to being a broke lawyer is doing enough of a job. If I want to buy Marci a decent ring someday I might have to pawn something. Unless I can pay Tiffany’s in ham.” He turned around as the bells went off and their parents came in the front door of the empty shop. “Hey! Look who made it back without sunburns!”

“We bought so many hats,” their mother exclaimed as she held out her arms for a double hug, and Theo shut the grill off to come over. There we hugs and slaps on the back all around and their parents looked excited and tanned and happy to see the place was still standing and all of the Nelsons were together again and everyone was so cheerful that Theo forgot to be nervous. 

When they were all seated (and had at least one drink in them – Mom was nice to Foggy and tried the wine), Theo and Foggy learned all about Tampa, the nice parts and the sketchy parts and the parts that got really loud during tourist season, and all of the friends they had made down there, and how the condominium had a tiny pool but it was big enough for both of them.

“Your father can’t do a full lap anyway,” Mom said. “But he walked back and forth! I was so proud of him!”

“It wasn’t that hard,” Pop laughed. 

In fact dinner went so well that Foggy had to nudge Theo during a lull. “Hey.”

“What?”

“ _ Are you chickening out? _ ” Foggy whispered. As if their parents weren’t right there. 

“No!” Theo said, loud enough that it turned their heads. He looked down at his half-eaten stuffed eggplant. “Mom, Pop, there’s something I have to tell you.” He took a deep breath, but he couldn’t bring his eyes up to face them. “I’m gay.”

The first thing he felt was his mother’s hand covering his own. “Oh, Theo. I’m so glad felt that you could tell us.”

He was both silently relieved and terrified, but he did manage to look up and his dad was not frowning. “You knew?”

“You’re our son!” his mother said. “Of course we knew.”

“Your mother found your website,” his dad explained.

“My food blog? That doesn’t have anything.”

“No, the other one. The Tumblr,” she said. “My friend Jan – you know Jan, her daughter used to babysit you? She sells her beadwork on it.”

“All that awful jewelry,” his dad said with disgust.

“Hush! So, she told me to take a look, and I figured since I was on there anyway I would look up other people I knew and then I remembered your first internet name – “

“ _ Oh no _ ,” Theo said, wondering how he could make himself disappear under the table.

“Bullmooseparty? I am so googling this!” Foggy got his phone out. “Wait. Do I want to google this?”

“No, you do not,” Theo said, now staring at the table with such intensity he wondered if he would fry the plate. 

“ – And so can you just tell us, because we couldn’t figure it out, is Final Fantasy a gay cartoon or a gay movie?”

“Final Fantasy?  _ The video game? _ !?” Because Foggy had played all of them before his life was taken over by school and work. “What are they up to now, like 20?”

“ _ Oh my G-d. _ ” Theo put his face in his hands. 

“I didn’t even know they  _ made _ those types of video games,” his father said and Theo was seriously about to cry if G-d didn’t hear his prayers and strike him down right then and there so that this conversation could end. “But of course we love and support your ... art.”

“It’s not mine! I just reblogged it!”

“That site is  _ very _ hard to figure out,” has mother said. “And I don’t care what anyone says. I think Jan puts a lot of work into her beading and she should be proud of it.”

“I don’t see you buying any,” his dad said.

“ _ Oh. My. G-d _ . What happened to Final Fantasy? It used to be magic and chocobos!” Foggy had fast fingers. “The chocobos are the giant chickens. And they used to be what the game was about but apparently that’s not the case anymore! Wow, the audience for gaming has really changed.”

“Please G-d, kill me now.”

His father slapped him on the back. “Now I know why I never found any Playboys under your mattress, huh?”

“Pop!”

“I am seriously traumatized over here,” Foggy announced. “I think my childhood is ruined.”

“Now Franklin, he told you not to look,” Mom said to Foggy in a very amused tone. “You should listen to your brother.”

“How long did you know about this? Because I found out like a week ago.”

Their parents exchanged glances. “A year? Two?”

“We decided we would wait until he was ready to tell us himself,” Mom said. “Theodore, we love you and we support you. However you want to live your life is fine with us.”

“I think all the vegetables did it.”

“Edward! I said none of that!” Without missing a beat, his mom’s face brightened and she turned back to him. “So, are you seeing anyone?”

  
  


Matt picked that night to try his fire escape escapades, knocking on the window instead of the door. Theo was face down on his comforter. He picked his head up as Sadie jumped off his back. “It’s open.” Then he put his head back down.

“That bad?” Matt sounded worried.

“It could have gone better,” Theo said, his voice muffled by the mattress. “They knew.”

“That’s ... good?”

“They found my porn. Like a year ago. And they talked about it.”

“Your parents go through your apartment?”

“Website,” Theo said. “I don’t know if anyone’s told you this, but everyone gets their porn on the internet now.”

“I figured it out,” Matt said, sitting down the edge of the bed. “Magazines never did much for me, either. So what were your parents doing on – “

“Looking at crummy jewelry.” Theo rolled over. “I don’t want to talk about it. Oh, and they love and support me and stuff.”

“That’s great.”

“I know. I should appreciate having loving parents who totally accept me for who I am. But – I have to get over this first.” 

“Okay.”

Matt rolled with everything. His life was super complicated already, with the whole dual identity thing, one of them being highly illegal and the other one being about legality. Theo supposed everything else was water off a duck’s back. 

Water off a duck’s back? Damn he was old. “They asked if I had someone. I covered for you. Said no.”

“You didn’t have to do that.”

“You want to have the relationship talk with my parents? The people who consider you a son?”

“Now you’re making it sound weird.”

“Yeah, I definitely just grossed myself out.”

Matt leaned over and kissed him on the head. It was possibly the most romantic gesture he’d ever made. “I know it was hard for you. I’m not good at telling my mom anything. Not because she’ll reject me – because we don’t know how to talk to each other. I ran away as soon as I found out who she was. I try not to be hurt and angry about it but part of me isn’t ready to let it go. But your parents – you have your hardships, but they’re amazing people to have in your life. They’ve been better parents to me than my mom has. But I still would have kicked them to the curb if they gave you any shit about this.” He kissed him again, this time on the lips. “Be proud of yourself.”

Pride. Theo associated it with heritage, or with rainbow flag parades, but not anything in between, and certainly not both. “Fuck, you know how to smooth talk a guy.”

“I’m not flirting,” Matt said. “Unless you want me to be.”

“Yeah,” Theo said, despite all of the terror and humiliation he’d endured today. “That’s exactly what I fucking want right now.”  
  


The End 


End file.
